Tag: west bank
Violence Intensifies In Jerusalem, West Bank, Raising Security Concerns

Violence Intensifies In Jerusalem, West Bank, Raising Security Concerns

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Violence intensified in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Sunday after Israelis were targeted in two stabbing attacks and a Palestinian was killed in a clash with Israeli troops, officials said.

A Palestinian man stabbed and wounded an Israeli teenager in Jerusalem, just hours after another knife-wielding attacker killed an off-duty Israeli soldier and a rabbi, nearby in the walled Old City, police said.

Officers shot dead both attackers, a police spokesman said, and Israel’s government announced it was barring Palestinians from entering the ancient district for two days, apart from people who lived there.

Later in the day, an 18-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed during a clash with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank town of Tulkarm, hospital officials said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met security chiefs on Sunday to discuss more action to tackle rising violence in East Jerusalem, which includes the Old City, and the West Bank, areas that Israel captured in a 1967 war.

In broadcast remarks, Netanyahu said the new measures would include speeding up the razing of homes of Palestinian attackers and banning those who incite violence from the Old City.

The bloodshed – which included a drive-by shooting that killed an Israeli couple in the West Bank on Thursday and an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents in July – has triggered concerns of wider escalation.

Israel’s best-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, published a banner front page headline reading “The third Intifada”, though the violence has not reached the levels of past Palestinian uprisings.

On Saturday, another Palestinian stabbed to death an off-duty Israeli soldier walking with his wife and children and a rabbi who rushed to their aid, on a street near Judaism’s Western Wall, police said.

Islamic Jihad later said the attack was carried out by one of its members.[ID:nL5N1230QH] Its al-Quds Brigades said the fatal stabbing was a “heroic attack” in response to “continued Zionist aggression” at Islamic holy sites.

In violence in another West Bank city called Jenin, Israeli forces on a raid to arrest “wanted men involved in terrorist activities” were confronted by a crowd of Palestinians that threw explosives at them, the army said.

A local hospital director said 22 Palestinians were wounded by live ammunition.

Violence also erupted in the south when Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into Israel, causing no injuries or damage. Israel usually retaliates for such attacks with air strikes in Gaza.

Tensions have been further inflamed by frequent clashes between Palestinian rock-throwers and Israeli security forces at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Palestinians have said they fear increasing visits by Jewish groups to al-Aqsa compound, revered by Jews as the site of Biblical temples, are eroding Muslim religious control there.

Israel has pledged to maintain Muslim prayer rights at al-Aqsa but has frequently banned young Muslim men from entering the area on security grounds.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Jon Boyle and Eric Walsh)

A Palestinian youth carries a flag during clashes in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya October 4, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Palestinian Factions Fatah, Hamas Reconcile, To Form Unity Government

Palestinian Factions Fatah, Hamas Reconcile, To Form Unity Government

By Batsheva Sobelman and Rushdi Abu Alouf, Los Angeles Times

GAZA CITY — The two main rival factions of Palestinian politics and society announced a reconciliation deal Wednesday that would mend a seven-year rift by forming a unity government and holding new elections.

Following two days of discussions between delegations of Fatah and Hamas, leaders of the groups announced the agreement at a joint news conference.

“This is the good news to tell our people: The era of division is over,” Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh declared. Fatah leader Azzam al-Ahmad said the sides aimed at forming a national unity government within five weeks.

The transitional government is planned to be based on professionals and independent political figures, with no members of either political group.

The reconciliation agreement calls for elections for parliament and presidency to be held around six months after the unity government is formed.

Palestinian government was torn asunder in 2007, when Hamas forcefully wrested control of the Gaza Strip from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, after the Islamist militant movement won elections the year before.

Since then, Gaza has been ruled by a Hamas government headed by Haniyeh, with the West Bank under control of the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas.

The divide has crippled Palestinian politics for years. The current push for unity comes at a time both sides need bolstering. The isolation of Hamas and Gaza has deepened as Egypt’s new government has given it the cold shoulder, and Fatah is divided on how to handle the push for Palestinian statehood, among other things.

Reconciliation agreements between the rival groups have been reached in the past but not implemented.

Israel rejects Hamas as a terrorist group. The international community has demanded Hamas denounce violence and recognize Israel and past Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Abbas “must choose between peace with Israel and peace with Hamas, a murderous terror organization that calls for Israel’s destruction and is defined as a terror organization by the U.S. and EU. This evening, while talks to extend the negotiations are still being held, Abu Mazen has chosen Hamas and not peace. Anyone choosing Hamas does not want peace.”

The statement from Netanyahu’s office announced the meeting of the negotiating teams scheduled for the evening had been canceled. The teams had been struggling to find a formula that would allow extending troubled peace talks about to expire next week with no agreement and deep discord.

As the Palestinian accord was being announced, Israel’s air force struck targets in Gaza, injuring at least six people, according to Palestinian reports. Israel’s military said the strike was aimed at it stopping what it described as imminent plans to launch rockets at Israel.

Later Wednesday, several rockets were launched toward southern Israel. No injuries were reported.

AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams

Jewish Extremists Clash With Israeli Troops In West Bank

Jewish Extremists Clash With Israeli Troops In West Bank

By Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM — Tensions were high Tuesday following a clash between Jewish extremists and Israeli troops in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar that injured about a dozen people on both sides.

The violence erupted overnight when security personnel entered Yitzhar, an ideological stronghold of Jewish settlers, to demolish several homes that were declared illegal by Israeli authorities.

Settlers blocked the road with burning tires and showered rocks on security troops, who fired tear gas at the settlers. Following the demolitions, a group of settlers ransacked an army post located nearby for the community’s protection.

The settlers’ actions drew widespread condemnation from Israeli defense and political officials, as well as some moderate settler leaders. While declaring the “violent elements” a minority, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said they “must obey the law like any citizen.” Yaalon added that the incident would be dealt with severely.

Israeli security forces were prepared for further unrest. Tensions have been escalating in Yitzhar since Sunday, when extremists slashed the tires of an army vehicle belonging to a visiting regional commander.

Some extremists see the Israeli military as enforcing government policies that they consider unfavorable to settlers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply condemned Sunday’s vandalism, vowing “zero tolerance” for those attacking Israel’s military.

According to the opposition Meretz party, however, authorities’ lenient treatment of attacks against Palestinians emboldened Jewish extremists to target the army.

“When security forces forgive pogroms against Palestinians, they should not be surprised” when the army too is attacked, the party said in a post on its Facebook page.

Palestinians have often been the target of attacks by Jewish extremists, who have assaulted them, chopped down their olive trees, set fire to their fields and cars, and tossed Molotov cocktails into their homes.

The mostly anonymous perpetrators have dubbed their attacks “price-tag operations,” as they exact a price for actions the extremists deem to be against settlement efforts. In recent years, extremists have increasingly aimed their hate crimes at targets inside Israel, vandalizing mosques, monasteries and cemeteries as well as liberal Jewish sites.

Last month, unknown assailants slashed the tires of cars parked at the Dir Rafat monastery, leaving offensive graffiti such as “Jesus is a monkey” and “America is Nazi Germany.”

Several days later, residents of Jish, an Arab village in the Galilee, woke up to find 40 cars with slashed tires and graffiti calling for the expulsion of non-Jews.

The perpetrators of such attacks are rarely apprehended.

Menahem Kahana AFP

Human Rights Group Criticizes Israel’s Treatment Of Palestinians

Human Rights Group Criticizes Israel’s Treatment Of Palestinians

By Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM — Israeli security forces use excessive force against Palestinians in the West Bank and display “callous disregard” for human life, Amnesty International said Thursday.

In a report called “Trigger-Happy: Israel’s Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank,” the human rights organization says Israeli soldiers and police killed 45 Palestinians since 2011, nearly half of them last year.

In all cases examined by the organization, the Palestinians killed did not appear to pose a direct or immediate threat to life, Amnesty said. In some cases, the organization said it found “evidence that they were victims of willful killings.”

The findings point to a “harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries” of Palestinian civilians, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director Philip Luther said in a press release.

In addition to 261 Palestinians seriously injured by live fire in the same period, 8,000 were wounded by other means, including tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets, many during demonstrations against Israel’s policies.

Amnesty urged Israel to refrain from use of lethal force unless explicitly necessary to protect lives and to respect Palestinian rights to “peaceful assembly.” The report urged the international community to suspend all weapons transfers to Israel.

The Israeli army rejected the report. In a statement issued Wednesday before Amnesty’s publication, the army said the organization ignored the sharp increase in Palestinian violence over the past year, including rock throwing, shootings and improvised explosive devices.

According to the statement, the Israeli army authorizes use of precision munitions only where non-lethal means of crowd control, including water cannons and tear gas, “have been exhausted and human life and safety remains under threat.”

Rejecting Amnesty’s statements that forces operate with “near total impunity” and that the Israeli investigative system is “woefully inadequate,” the army maintained it abides by “the highest of professional standards.” Any suspicion of wrongdoing is investigated, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Jerusalem-based group NGO Monitor dismissed the report as flawed and impartial. Calling the accusations “reckless and blatantly biased,” founder Gerald Steinberg charged that Amnesty “lacks the expertise and credibility to analyze or assign blame for deaths” in this context.

The group described Amnesty’s related research team as individuals with “backgrounds in anti-Israeli political activism,” not military and legal expertise.

Also Thursday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian in the West Bank.

According to Israeli military officials, soldiers were carrying out an operation in the West Bank village of Bir Zeit overnight for the arrest of wanted suspects.

Israeli media reported that two Palestinians were arrested overnight while a third holed up inside a house in Bir Zeit, surrounded by Israeli forces calling him to turn himself in.

According to an official army tweet, he was a “terrorist” who resisted arrest, forcing troops to shoot him.

Palestinian media identified the victim as Muatazz Washaha, 24. Witnesses told Maan news agency Washaha was shot in the head. An assault rifle was found in the house but had not been fired at Israeli troops at any point, according to Palestinian media.

Photo: Downing Street via Flickr